US ‘planning new bid to capture bin Laden’

US special forces are planning a second raid inside Pakistan in a new bid to seize Osama bin Laden, it was reported today.

The operation in the lawless borderland territory with Afghanistan would follow last month’s swoop by FBI and CIA agents to capture al-Qaida chief of operations Abu Zubaydah.

US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca has visited Islamabad to ask Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf, for permission to carry out the raid, military sources told Time magazine.

American authorities are said to be confident that bin Laden is hiding in the mountainous area between the two countries, following the discovery of a cache of documents and computer discs in Zubaydah’s hide out.

But General Musharraf has not yet given his consent to the operation because of concerns that the region’s well-armed tribes remain sympathetic to Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime.

He fears if the operation was botched it could further undermine his already-frayed ties to the area, the magazine reported.

The remote mountainous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is extremely porous and, despite American pressure on Pakistan to step up patrols, intelligence officials believe it continues to be easily crossed by locals and Taliban and al Qaida fighters.

Zubaydah was the first senior al Qaida figure arrested by US authorities since September 11.

The 30-year-old was believed to involved in activating terror cells already in place around the globe when he was captured in a dramatic shootout in central Pakistan.